Dr Andras Lakatos leads the Regenerative Neurobiology Laboratory at the University of Cambridge, a team dedicated to understanding how the brain's support cells shape the survival and function of nerve cells in health, injury and disease.

Motor Neuron Disease (MND) is a progressive and fatal neurological condition that destroys the nerve cells controlling movement, leading to increasing paralysis. It affects around 5,000 people in the UK at any one time, and currently has no cure. Many other neurodegenerative conditions, including ALS and Frontotemporal Dementia, involve similar processes of nerve cell loss that are still poorly understood.

The group focuses on a class of brain cells called astrocytes, which play a critical role in supporting and regulating nerve cell networks. When things go wrong in neurodegeneration, astrocytes can switch from being protective to actively harmful, but the reasons for this remain unclear. The team uses cutting-edge human stem cell models, including brain organoids grown in the laboratory, to recreate the conditions of these diseases at a level of detail not previously possible.

By studying how genetic mutations and other risk factors disturb the normal relationship between astrocytes and nerve cells, the group aims to identify precise new targets for drug treatments that could protect nerve cells before irreversible damage occurs.

Supporting this research will help unlock new strategies to treat MND and related neurodegenerative diseases by targeting the biology of the brain's own support cells.